Getting from fp.o to a download
Objective: Make it as easy as possible for a new Fedora user (who may not be familiar with Linux or even operating systems, but knows that he or she wants to "download Fedora" for whatever reason) to get from http://fedoraproject.org to having the appropriate file downloaded on his/her computer.
What's hard about it now
What other distros do
Mark and Max looked at what other distributions look for this. Assumptions and results below.
Assumptions
- On the main sites of the distributions below we only looked at how easy it was to get to the download page
- and how good (or bad) does that look compared to fedora
- and how obvious a link to the download page was
- The idea was: how would new users, any new users experience the road to the fedora download page
- that includes complete pc n00bs
- and highly advanced pc users
Fedora
On the fedora main page: no clear direct place to download it. Even better not a single "download" on the page. At first sight not obvious at all where you need to click. If you click on the big fedora "banner" you are linked to the tour page. Every single link outside the menu brings you to some place else then the download place! The only places where you can click to download it is: the small banner on the top left with the lion in it or the relatively tiny "Get Fedora" link in the menu. This is not obvious and requires the user to just look around first. Might be a good marketing trick but to me personally it's just annoying.
OpenSuse
"Get It".. and then? then you get a range of radio buttons. Ah no, i have to make choices! Avoid that at default and provide an advanced option with those choices.
Mandriva
At first sight not clear where the download button is (http://www2.mandriva.com/) but when you click that (top center) then you get a very fancy looking download page. It looks clean and to the point. We should have something like this or better.
Ubuntu
You can't miss the download there! it's right in the header and not something you miss. We both saw this as a very clear and fast way to download it but is it nice? We didn't think so.
Mockups
This section is for mockups of designs that would make the objective better.
Get Fedora
This is a mockup of the Get Fedora page. This is just to show how it could be done. The colors are way out of the fedora range but it does show the simplicity for new users.
Main fedora page
This is a mockup of the FedoraProject.org homepage. This is just to show how it could be done. The colors are way out of the fedora range but it does show the simplicity for new users.
Signing up for the web group
This is something Mark noticed when he needed to sign up for the web group. It's not said on that page anywhere! Perhaps not needed?